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ENGAGE

Player Performance & Robustness

The IRFU has devised a structured rugby readiness warm-up programme aimed at enhancing rugby performance and reducing the risk of injury. This resource supports all levels of the club and school game.

The programme’s content has been informed by the Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance (IRIS) project, the IRFU’s long term injury surveillance research partnership with the University of Limerick. It contains rugby components, can be delivered by coaches at all levels and has been designed to be completed in a short period of time to support rugby activity.

ENGAGE is presented in three phases

1. Readiness – dynamic movements to help players warm up for training or match activity
2. Robustness – muscle activation exercises to help create long-term strength and endurance
3. Performance – primers to get players performance ready for rugby specific activities

The ENGAGE programme can be delivered by a coach in approximately 15mins ahead of training or games. The resource contains 37 instructional videos which provide guidance on how to deliver exercises that support readiness, robustness and performance.

Dynamic movements to help players warm up for training or match activity.

This playlist contains 16 videos. You can watch them in sequence or tap the playlist icon in the video to select one.

Muscle activation exercises to help create long-term strength and endurance.

This phase has four key exercises and four alternatives to target areas of frequent use and injury.

Pick four to complete as part of your ENGAGE programme to prepare for training activities’

Primers to get players performance ready for rugby specific activities. Select two contact primers and two speed primers (one acceleration primer over 10-15m and one sprint primer over 25-35m) as part of your ENGAGE programme to prepare for rugby-specific activities.

This playlist contains multiple videos. You can watch them in sequence or tap the playlist icon in the video to select one.

Contact Primers

Speed Primers